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Tuesday, 5 February 2019

Thomas Butler - The Grandfather of Campaign Furniture Makers?

Thomas
Butler can perhaps be considered the ‘Grandfather’ of campaign furniture
makers. Certainly all of the other cabinet makers who worked in or around
Catherine Street in the early 19th century had, at some stage, been linked to
him and went on to make very similar pieces to those of Butler.

Butler
is recorded as first starting in partnership with Edward Johnson at 146 Strand,
which is opposite Catherine Street, sometime before 1787. Johnson had
previously taken out insurance at 14 Catherine Street in 1784 and it may be
that Butler was in his employment before they became partners with the plan
that he would eventually take over the business. This would tie in with Johnson
and Butler dissolving their partnership in March 1787, the stock auctioned by
Christies and it seems Johnson stopping work as cabinet maker. The move to 146
Strand for a brief period may be explained by a line in the notice of the
partnership’s dissolution, which also states the business was formerly of
Catherine Street. The notice says all demands on the business can be made to
Butler at the Strand until the Catherine Street address is rebuilt. It’s
possible that 14 Catherine Street had been damaged by fire or simply that the
property was being altered.

After
running his own business for a short time, up to 1791, Butler joined in
partnership with John Heppel at 14 Catherine Street. When the partnership was
dissolved, Heppel moved out and set up in business as a cabinet maker at 55
Oxford Street.

Although
he had previously made a variety of furniture with both Johnson and Heppel, Butler
now concentrated his business on the manufacture of sofa and chair beds and described his
premises, in adverts, as an Upholstery & Bedding Warehouse.

Chair Bed by Thomas Butler

There was agreat interest in metamorphic furniture at the end of the 18th century and a
sofa or chair that could be quickly converted to a bed no doubt proved popular.
Four poster beds that could be easily set up and taken down were soon added to
Butler’s range. By the turn of 1800 he had gone back to also manufacturing other
cabinet work and supplied the Prince of Wales with two elegant mahogany Writing
Tables in 1802.

Extended as a bed

It
is easy to see how making metamorphic furniture progressed to campaign
furniture and the Napoleonic Wars would have further increased the demand. A
broadsheet advert of 1806 shows that Butler was producing Portable Chairs,
Imperial Dining Tables, Escretoires and both Chair and Sofa Beds. These items
were aimed at both the military and the domestic markets with designs also
available in the Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Chinese manner. It was also
possible for customers to provide their own timber.

Butler made the most of suggesting that he was
the originator of a number of the designs of his furniture although this is a
very grey area. It was not uncommon at the time for cabinet makers to use the
word patent to describe their furniture even if they hadn’t actually taken a
patent out. It was a means of elevating the design and suggesting it was
protected. Butler is not listed as having taken out any patents of his own and
it is known that he used his Catherine Street neighbour Thomas Waldron’s 1785
patent for a bed that could be assembled without the use of screws or nuts and
bolts. Morgan & Sanders,
who started as Butlers foreman and clerk before they set up in rivalry, also later
claimed that they were the originators of some of his designs whilst working
for him. It will probably never be known how many of Butler’s designs were
original to him, conceived by others in his workshops or taken from other
cabinet makers.

Four Poster Bed dissassembled

Thomas
Butler was also a non-conformist minister at Charlton, near Hitchin and perhaps
it was this secondary occupation that led him to retire and then return Catherine
Street twice. In late 1800, he sold his business to Thomas Oxenham much to the
chagrin of Morgan & Sanders, who believed it had been promised
to them. They quickly set up as neighbours and competitors to Oxenham at Nos.
16 & 17 Catherine Street. The intense competition between Butler and Morgan
& Sanders, led by the latter, was played out in the press over the next 10 years with each
issuing adverts attacking the other.

Oxenham,
originally a mangle maker in Oxford Street, didn’t last long. In 1802 Butler
had taken the business back and continued for another 8 years. In 1804 he took
out insurance on properties behind Catherine Street at 4 to 7 Helmet Court and
Pegasus Yard, Savoy. This suggests that business was good, and he expanded. In
1810 he retired once more, this time selling the business to Edward Argles. Argles was a Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer from
Maidstone, Kent and probably saw the move to London as a good opportunity to grow
his business. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him and he was declared
bankrupt in June 1813.

Once
more Butler returned and set up again at 13 and 14 Catherine Street. He only
lasted a year, perhaps because he had lost too many key employees. His son in
law, John Steains, who had been with him since 1793, took the opportunity when
Argles moved in, to set up in business with George Pryor and John Mackenzie who
had also been employed by Butler. They established themselves at Brydges
Street, which ran on north from Catherine Street. In July 1814, Butler retired
for the final time and his stock was auctioned over 3 days. Morgan &
Sanders later advertised that they had taken over a considerable part of
Butler’s premises, as one final jab at their former employer.

A small Imperial Table.

Although
Johnson and Waldron were fore runners to Butler in Catherine Street and Morgan
& Sanders are perhaps the most recognised name of the two today, Butler’s
influence on campaign furniture should not be under estimated. He capitalised
on the interest in metamorphic furniture and the demand for campaign furniture.
In doing so, he also paved the way for the other businesses to profit from the
same markets. We group Butler, Morgan & Sanders, Oxenham, Argles, Steains,
Pryor & Mackenzie and John Durham as the Catherine Street makers not just
because of their location. They all produced very similar pieces, working to a
number of the same designs which were first popularised by Butler. So much so that it can be difficult to determine
which of them made one of the recognised designs without a maker’s label.

Recognition
is due to Nicholas Brawer and Elizabeth Heyer for their seperate research on
Thomas Butler and Morgan & Sanders.

More
can be read about the some of the other Catherine Street makers on our website at
the below links:

1 comment:

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